A'-  ^  :oi , 


PBESENTED  TO  THE  LIBBARY 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Pfofessof  HcnPy  ^OJ^  Dyke,  D.D.,  LiIi.D. 


.  ?I.V77 


CHRIST  AS  A  TEACHER. 


TWO    LECTURES 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  NEW  YORK  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATION. 


BY 

MARVIN    R.    VINCENT,    D.D. 


NEW  YORK: 

ANSON     D.     F.     RANDOLPH     &    COMPANY, 

900  BROADWAY,   COR.    20th   STREET. 


Copyright,  1886,  by 
Anson  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Company. 


EDWARD  o.  Jenkins'  sons> 

Printers  and  Stereotypers^ 

ao  North  William  St.,  New  York, 


CHRIST    AS    A    TEACHER. 


I. 


It  is  a  vast  and  most  tempting  subject  which 
you  have  assigned  me.  At  best  you  will  not 
expect  me  to  do  more  than  to  touch  a  point 
here  and  there  on  the  circumference  of  the 
theme.  That  I  may  do  even  thus  much,  let 
me  waste  no  time  in  preliminary  words.  I  am 
to  speak  of  CHRIST  AS  A   TEACHER. 

None  of  us  will  dispute  the  rightfulness  of 
the  title  which  our  Lord  gives  Himself  in  the 
thirteenth  of  John  {v-J^-  "Ye  call  me  master 
{ox  teacher)  anHTlord,  and  ye  say  well,  for  so 
I  am."  He  is  the  representative  teacher;  the 
teacher  of  teachers ;  the  model  and  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  most  successful  theories  of  teach- 
ing. Back  to  Him  we  must  go,  down  the 
whole  long  line  of  sages  and  philosophers,  for 
the  best  example  of  the  art  of  expounding 
truth  to  uninstructed  minds.  Our  admiration 
grows  as  we  apprehend  the  conditions  under 
which  He  taught,  and  the  character  of  His 
material.    He  had  not  to  deal  with  virgin  soil. 


J  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

The  teacher  who  grapples  with  a  fresh  mind, 
unbiased  by  reh'gious  opinions  or  definite  re- 
ligious conceptions,  has  a  great  advantage 
over  one  who  must  reach  a  mind  through  a 
jungle  of  false  conceptions  and  prejudices, 
rooted  in  tradition,  developed  by  false  meth- 
ods of  training,  and  backed  by  perhaps  the 
most  arrogant  and  dictatorial  ecclesiasticism 
the  world  has  ever  known.  It  was  very  much 
for  even  some  such  auditors  to  say,  "  Never 
man  spake  like  this  man.'-'      ,        ■    • 

THE   POWER   OF   CHRIST'S   PERSONALITY. 

And  here  we  catch  more  than  a  hint  of  the 
first  great  element  of  Christ's  power  as  a 
t eacher—  Hi S  PERSONAUT y7~  1 1  w^s  the  man 
that  carried  and  drove  home  the  teaching. 

Power  in  teaching  is  bound  up  with  charac- 
ter in  the  teacher.  Truth,  from  a  real  teacher, 
is  not  like  water  running  through  a  marble  or 
silver  channel  which  imparts  no  character  to 
it.  It  is  rather  like  water  in  a  medicated  cup 
which  communicates  its  flavor  to  the  liquid. 
A  mind  is  not  merely  a  receptacle  for  facts ; 
it  is  a  germ  to  be  informed,  and  only  life  can 
inform  with  life.  Formulas  of  truth  quicken 
as  the  teacher's  life  pervades  them.  The  in- 
stinct of  the  youngest  pupil  is  to  put  the 
teacher  before  the  lesson.    Scores  of  men  who 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  C 

never  exerted  a  fraction  of  Thomas  Arnold's 
power  over  English  youth,  were  his  superiors 
in  knowledge  and  in  what  goes  to  make  the 
drill-master ;  but  the  best  thing  which  the 
Rugby  boys  carried  away  from  Rugby  was 
the  impress  of  Arnold  himself. 

The  great  illustration  of  this  truth  is  Christ. 
The  powers  of  Christianity  is  the  power  of  a 
person  rather  than  of  a  system.  His  words 
are  "  spirit  and  life,"  because  He  speaks 
them.  I  do  not  mean  merely  that  His  pres- 
ence was  commanding  and  His  mode  of  speech 
fascinating,  though  that  might  well  be  the 
case;  but  I  mean  that^^the  Man  and  His  say- 
ings were  inseparably  welded ;  that  the  say- 
ings were  the  outcome  of  the  man's  inmost 
quality  and  fibre.  Christ  is  the  incarnated 
denial  of  the  French  diplomatist's  falsehood 
that  "  the  great  object  of  language  is  to 
conceal  thought."  Christ  himself  appeared 
through  all  the  windows  of  His  speech.  You 
would  not  be  slow  to  appreciate  the  difference 
between  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  thundered 
forth  by  the  great  expounder  of  the  Constitu- 
tion in  person,  and  the  same  speech  declaimed 
in  the  best  style  by  a  clever  school-boy.  You 
do  not  stop  to  analyze  such  differences ;  you 
feel  them.  Of  Christ  it  has  been  beautifully 
said,    "To   hear    His   daily   speech   was   not 


5  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

simply  to  receive  His  thoughts  but  to  share, 
as  it  were,  the  inmost  Hfe  of  His  spirit.  His 
speech  is,  after  eighteen  centuries,  exceeding 
wonderful  to  the  world,  and  humanity  still 
listens  to  it  as  one  listens  to  a  tale  he  can  not 
choose  but  hear;  yet  to  the  men  who  first 
heard  it,  it  was  made  fully  intelligible  by  His 
person.  To  hear  His  speech  was  to  enjoy 
His  fellowship ;  and  His  fellowship  created 
the  sense  that  understood  His  speech.  _  His 
words  came  to  them  explained  by  a  living 
and  articulate  commentary."  That  was  pre- 
eminently true  of  our  Lord  which  was  said  of 
a  certain  literary  character  of  England,  that 
"  his  conversation  was  companionship  and  his 
companionship  conversation."  Christ's  words, 
spoken  by  Plato  or  Aristotle,  would  not  have 
been  "  spirit  and  life."  No  homily  or  treatise 
will  generate  the  enthusiasm  of  a  true  student. 
Men  will  not  suffer  martyrdom  for  an  abstrac- 
tion, nor  meet  a  code  with  self-surrender. 
Self  will  not  capitulate  to  sermons.  The 
sermon  must  flame  into  a  life.  Christ  at  the 
tomb  of  Lazarus  gives  the  real  clench  to 
Paul's  argument  in  First  Corinthians  :  "  Love 
your  enemies"  must  be  translated  into  the 
wood  and  nails  of  the  cross  before  men  will 
decipher  it. 

The  first  and  highest  requisite  of  a  Sunday- 


CHRIST  AS  A   TEACHER.  j 

school  teacher,  therefore,  is  a  well-defined 
Christian  personality.  Study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures will  not,  of  itself,  make  a  teacher.  The 
work  begins  deeper  than  that.  The  teacher 
is  not  set  merely  to  explain  the  geography 
and  the  customs  of  Bible  lands  or  the  mean- 
ing of  hard  texts.  He  is  not  merely  to  give 
his  pupils  information  :  he  is  to  inform  them 
with  the  quality  of  a  Christ-like  character ; 
and  for  this  he  must  have  "  Christ  formed 
within"  him.  He  is  to  be  a  moral  and  spir- 
itual power,  not  an  encyclopaedia.  He  is  to 
be  not  mere  ammunition,  but  powder  on  fire. 
Paul,  as  you  remember,  in  his  counsel  to 
Timothy,  puts  self  before  teaching :  "  Take 
heed  to  tJiyself  and  unto  thy  teaching  ";  for 
it  is  thyself  that  teaches.  Similarly  he  said 
"to  the  Ephesian  elders:  "Take  heed  unto 
yoiirselves  and  unto  the  flock." 

This  whole  line  of  thought  will  find  further 
illustration  in  the  second  characteristic  of  our 
Lord's  teaching,  to  which  we  now  come. 

CHRIST  A   DOGMATIC   TEACHER. 
Christ  was  a  dogmatic  teacher.    I  know  that 


the  word  "dogma"  jars  upon  some  ears,  but 
it  is  a  fair  question  whether  the  word  or  the 
ear  is  responsible  for  the  jar.  A  defective  ear 
courts  false  harmonies.     The  King  of  Siam, 


3  crrRisT  AS  A  teacher. 

according  to  the  story,  was  more  delighted 
with  the  orchestra's  preliminary  jargon  in  tun- 
ing their  instruments  than  with  their  grandest 
symphony,  and  asked  to  have  "  that  first  piece  " 
repeated.  Many  are  afraid  of  the  word  "  dog- 
ma" because  they  mistake,  or  only  partially 
apprehend,  its  meaning.  "Dogma"  is  a  good 
New  Testament  word,  which  always  carries  the 
sense  of  authority. .  That  was  the  very  thing 
which  astonished  the  people  in  Christ's  teach- 
ing. \He  taught  them  as  one  having  authority.'' 
Possibly  we  believe  in  dogma  more  than  we 
think.  If  we  follow  back  some  of  the  things 
about  which  we  are  surest,  we  may  find  that 
they  rest  on  dogma  after  all.  You  and  I  began 
our  education  with  dogma.  When  you  stood 
beside  your  mother  and  began  upon  the  alpha- 
bet, little  knew  or  cared  you  about  Cadmus  or 
the  theory  of  phonetics.  Your  mother  said, 
"  That  is  A,"  and  you  believed  it,  and  have 
acted  upon  your  belief  ever  since.  I  know 
there  is  said  to  have  been  at  least  one  excep- 
tion to  that  rule.  I  have  somewhere  read  of 
a  stuttering  Block  Island  boy  who  essayed  the 
alphabet  for  the  first  time,  and  on  being  told 
that  the  character  on  the  blackboard  was  A, 
replied,  "  H-h-how  do  y-you  know  i-it's  A?" 
The  teacher  meekly  replied  that  her  teacher 
had  told  her  so ;  whereupon  the  young  skep- 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  q 

tic,  after  a  long  look  at  the  doubtful  character, 
stolidly  responded,  "  H-h-how  did  you  k-n-now 
he  d-d-didnt  l-l-lie  ?  "  But  we  may  safely  afifirm 
that  such  hopeless  exceptions  are  rare.  Most 
of  us  learned  the  alphabet  dogmatically  at 
our  mother's  knee  or — over  it.  It  was  the 
same  with  the  multiplication  table,  and  with 
a  hundred  other  things.  We  have  no  better 
reason  for  believing  them  than  that  we  were 
told  so.  The  purest  dogmatism  is  the  basis  of 
at  least  two-thirds  of  our  knowledge.  Dogma 
is  a_Jjin.da.mental  necessity  of  our  education. 
Tt  is  simply  impossible,  as  it  would  be  foolish 
if  it  were  possible,  to  follow  down  every  item 
of  our  knowledge  to  its  roots.  A  life  might 
be  consumed  upon  a  single  item.  It  is  at  once 
our  right  and  our  duty  to  enter  into  other 
men's  labors,  and  to  stand  upon  the  founda- 
tions they  have  laid.  All  honest  and  thorough 
work  saves  the  time  and  the  labor  of  future 
generations.  No  locomotive-builder  thinks  it 
necessary,  in  order  to  construct  a  perfect  ma- 
chine, that  he  should  begin  where  Stephenson 
did,  and  work  up  through  each  successive  stage 
to  the  present  level  of  knowledge  and  mechan- 
ical skill.  He  starts  with  the  latest  and  best 
model  he  can  find. 

No  one  will  understand   me  to  depreciate 
research,  nor  to  mean  that  religious  truth  is  to 


10 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 


be  received  on  mere  authority,  an  idea  which 
is  contrary  to  the  whole  spirit,  attitude,  and 
teaching  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  a  Christian 
apostle  who  bids  us  be  ready  to  give  to  every 
man  that  asketh  us  a  reason  of  the  hope  that 
is  within  us.  But  I  am^sjgeaking  of  teaching 
and  of  methods  of  teaching ;  and  my  point  is 
that  all  teaching  must  include  dogma,  and, 
ordinarily,  must  begin  with  dogma.  If  you 
want  to  instruct  a  child  or  an  ignorant  person 
about  the  soul,  you  do  not  begin  with  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  nature  of  spirit  and  matter; 
you  do  not  pretend  to  lead  the  pupil  through 
every  stage  of  knowledge  and  proof.  You 
start  with  dogmatic  statement :  "  You  have  a 
soul,  and  that  something  in  you  which  you 
know  and  feel  is  there, — that  something  which 
is  not  your  hand  nor  your  foot,  nor  anything 
about  your  body,  but  which  thinks  and  wills 
and  chooses,  and  is  glad  or  sorry, — is  your 
soul."  I  say  dogma  does  not  exclude  question 
or  research.  On  the  contrary  the  true  teacher 
dogmatizes  in  order  tjCLset, his  pupil  thinkjnr; 
and  asking  questions._  Properly  viewed,  dog- 
ma is  the  true  preparation  ancOtiHuIant  for 

research.    

Now,  Christ's  teaching  is  a  notable  illustra- 
tion of  this.  Not  that  He  does  not  invite 
question  ;  not  that  He  does  not  explain  ;  but 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 


II 


the  great,  fundamental  characteristic  of  His 
metHod  is  assertion, — shnple,  authont^ative 
"Statement.  "The  facts  about  God  and  His 
HEingdom,  and  Hfe  and  death  and  judgment, 
are  thus  and  so."  And  these  statements  were 
not  authoritative  in  form  and  manner  only. 
They  carried .  the  sense  pfauthorityj^.  and  im- 
pressed and  moved  men  from  a  point  deeper 
fTTarTtTieir  logic.  Christ  was  a  notable  illus- 
tration of  the  remark  that  "  power  of  state- 
ment is  power  of  argument."  Christ  knew 
men  too  well  to  attempt  to  reach  the  masses 
with  argument.  Even  the  learned  Nicodemus' 
first  essay  is  met  with  that  most  tremendous 
dogma  in  the  New  Testament,  "  Except  a 
man  be  born  again,  he  can  not  see  the  king- 
dom of  God." 

Perhaps  we  do  not  fully  realize  what  a  deli- 
cate and  dangerous  experiment  it  was  for  a 
radical  reformer  like  Jesus, — a  teacher  of  a 
strange  and  unpopular  doctrine, — to  throw 
Himself  so  much  upon  simple  assertion.  And 
here  comes  in  that  power  of  Christ's  personal- 
ity  alrea^y^alTuHecTToT'ir'neecIed  a  wonderful 
"seir  to  carry  those  assertions;  it  needed  the 
peculiar  quality  of  that  self  infused  into  those 
assertions  sp  as  to  give  them  a  self-evidencing 
power.  It  is  not  every,  one  that  can  dogma- 
tize effectively.     The  power  of  a  dogma  lies 


J 2  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

very  much  in  who  propounds  it.  When  a 
youthful  pulpit  orator,  fresh  from  the  semi- 
nary, lays  down  the  principles  of  family  gov- 
ernment to  a  congregation  of  fathers  and 
mothers,  all  that  he  says  may  be  thoroughly 
true,  but  the  fathers  and  mothers  either  smile, 
or  are  thinking  of  something  else ;  and  the 
washerwoman  in  the  corner  under  the  gallery, 
with  half  a  dozen  rampant  olive-plants  at 
home,  if  she  does  not  say  as  much,  feels  that 
she  can  tell  the  preacher  a  great  deal  more 
about  his  subject  than  he  is  telling  her.  The 
lesson,  however  truthful,  is  truth  outside  of 
the  preacher,  not  a  part  of  him  ;  not  the  ex- 
pression of  experience  or  sympathy  or  any- 
thing residing  in  him.  Therefore,  the  more 
dogmatic  he  is,  the  more  absurd  he  is.  It  is 
simply  stage-thunder.  As  the  best-made  can- 
non-ball is  useless  until  fitted  to  its  cannon,  so 
the  soundest  and  most  compact  dogma  is  impo- 
tent until  it  is  cast  in  the  mould  of  individual 
experience  and  propelled  by  personality. 

Th^erefore  Christy. could  dogmatize  effect- 
ively. No  one  but  Christ  could  have  given 
lodgment  to  such  words  as — "Ye  must  be 
born  again  ":  "  He  that  believeth  not  is  con- 
demned.iilj:eady  ": .  "  God.is:a-Spirit,  and  they 
that  worship  Him  must  v.'orship  Him  in  spirit 
and  in  truth  ":  "  He  that  loveth  his  life  loseth 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  j, 

it  ":  "  On  these  two  commandments  hang 
all  the  law  and  the  prophets."  Back  of  all 
lay  His  deep,  divine  self-consciousness,  the 
knowledge  thajt  He  was  Himself  the  Truth. 
When  He  taught,  it  was  the  Truth  speaking 
the  truth.  No  doubt  lingered  in  any  remote 
depth  of  His  soul:  no  secret  apprehension  or 
haunting  sense  of  possibility  that  any  word  of 
man  could  overthrow  the  word  of  the  living 
God.  Pure,  absolute  certainty  was  the  foun- 
tain-head of  His  speech  :  intuitive  certainty 
that  what  He  uttered  was  the  eternal  verity 
and  reality,  beside  which  the  imaginings  and 
dialectic  subtleties  of  worldly-wise  moji  were 
but  cobwebs.  "  He  was  certain  that  though 
He  never  wrote,  only  spoke,  His  words  were 
imperishable,  and  would  outlast  heaven  and 
earth.  He  was  at  the  first  as  at  the  last  cer- 
tain of  the  reality  of  His  words  and  claims, 
of  their  endurance  and  triumph.  He  was  as 
calmly  and  consciously  confident  when  He 
sat,  pitied  by  Pilate,  in  the  shadow  of  Cal- 
vary, as  when  He  went  forth,  approved  by 
John,  to  preach,  in  His  fresh  and  glorious 
manhood,  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God," 
Out  of  this  we  may  draw  at  least  one  valu- 
able practical  lesson  for  the  Christian  teacher. 
There  are  indeed  questions  raised  by  the 
Gospel  toward  which  he  must  bear  himself  as 


I  A  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

a  humble  and  reverent  learner.  He  comes, 
not  unfrequently,  to  a  something  tangled  and 
complicated  to  his  human  sense,  like  the  bush 
on  Horeb,  yet  like  that  bush,  burning  with 
God's  fire,  before  which  he  can  only  stand 
with  unshod  feet,  waiting  for  the  voice  from 
the  flame.  But  the  Gospel  has  certainties  as 
well  as  mysteries.  It  would  not  be  a  Gospel 
else.  And  toward  its  great,  fundamental 
positions,  his  attitude  is  to  be  that  of  assur- 
ance. In  modern  teaching  there  is  often  mani- 
fest too  strong  a  disposition  to  put  Chris- 
tianity on  the  defensive.  It  was  Coleridge,  I 
believe,  who  declared  that  he  was  "  sick  of 
evidences  of  Christianity."  We  can  not  work 
for  men's  salvation  with  anything  less  than  a 
certainty,  held  by  us  as  it  was  held  and  pro- 
pounded by  Christ,  as  a  fixed,  unalterable, 
eternal  fact.  Men  can  not  be  moved  to  self- 
abandonment  and  self-consecration  by  an  open 
question.  If  the  Gospel  is  something  yet  to 
be  proved,  it  is  time  that  Christians,  at  least, 
abandoned  it  for  something  else.  I  know  that 
Christianity  involves  questions  which  are  yet 
in  court ;  but  none  of  these  are  vital.  If, 
however,  the  Gospel  itself  is  still  a  thing  in 
doubt ;  if  there  is  a  possibility  that  science 
may  yet  put  us  out  in  the  cold,  without  a  Sav- 
iour and  bankrupt    in   faith,  and  shivering  in 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  j  k 

the  blasts  from  every  point  of  the  philosophic 
compass, — I,  for  one,  want  no  more  of  it. 
Let  me  go  down  from  the  Christian  teacher's 
place,  if  my  business  there  is  only  to  urge  a 
probability,  or  to  flaunt  a  flag  from  the  top  of 
pasteboard  bastions  which  the  next  shot  from 
a  well-trained  infidel  battery  will  breach.  The 
alternative  for  us  is  a  sure  Gospel  or  no  gospel. 
Evidences  of  Christianity  have  their  function, 
and  an  important  function  ;  but  it  is,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  rather 
the  education  of  believers  than  the  conviction 
of  unbelievers.  As  Christian  teachers  our  busi- 
nessj§,l£ss..ix»_axgue'"fliah  to  assert  the  Word  of 
God,  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  the  power 
of  _God  unto  salvation.  A  great  modern 
preacher  has  well  said,  "If  we  would  trust 
Christ's  cross  to  stand  firm  without  our  stays, 
and,  arguing  less  about  it,  would  seldomer  try 
to  prop  it  and  oftener  to  point  to  it,  it 
would  draw  more  men  to  it." 

Sunday-school  teachers  must,  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  be  mostly  dogmatic.  ^  *'  The  creed 
oT  cKlldFood,"  one  has  justly  said,  "  must 
necessarily  be  imparted  dogmatically."  It 
must  rest  on  authority  :  and  authority  which 
carries  home  the  truth  to  a  child's  mind  is 
born  of  a  living  Christian  personality  in  the 
teacher.     The  standard  of  preparation   must 


1 5  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

not  be  let  down- ;  the  demands  of  Scriptural 
study  must  be  strictly  met ;  but  the  carefully 
gathered  knowledge,  in  order  to  move  and 
impress  the  pupil,  must  be  fused  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  into  the  mould  of  a  living  experience. 
In  Bible-classes  of  older  pupils,  the  teacher 
must,  of  course,  be  prepared  to  answer  objec- 
tions and  to  deal  with  doubts  ;  but  he  must 
never  take  the  attitude  of  a  doubter  himself. 
If  a  question  is  asked  which  he  can  not  an- 
swer, or  a  problem  raised  which  he  can  not 
solve  (and  the  veriest  child  will  often  pro- 
pound such),  let  him  say  so  frankly,  but 
always  in  such  a  way  as  to  let  it  be  under- 
stood that  no  possible  solution  or  answer  can 
in  any  wise  disturb  for  him  the  solid  ground- 
work and  substance  of  the  Gospel.  He  must 
never  tread  gingerly  on  Gospel  ground.  It  is 
holy  ground,  but  firm  ground ;  and  though  he 
may  not  be  able  to  arrange  and  explain  all 
that  is  7{pon  it,  he  is  to  step  as  one  who  knows 
that  the  Rock  of  Ages  is  under  it. 

CHRIST  A   SYSTEMATIC   TEACHER. 

I  go  on  to  note  that  Christ  was  a  systematic 
teacher.  I  do  not  meaiT  in  the  scholastic 
sense  of  elaborating  a  system  of  morals  or 
theology.  He  left  that  for  others.  But  it  is 
a  great  mistake  to  suppose,  as  not  a  few  do, 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  j  y 

that  Christ's  teaching  was  a  disorderly  collec- 
tion of  fragments  which  it  should  be  the  task 
of  future  students  to  sift  out  and  arrange. 
Christ's  teaching  was  methodical  in  its  inner 
structure.  This  opens  a  very  wide  subject, 
and  I  can  only  touch  a  point  here  and  there. 

Take,  for  example,  the  progression  in  His 
teaching.  Compare  the  last  chapters  of  John's 
gospel  with  the  Synoptists.  A  great  advance 
is  perceptible.  The  teaching  is  less  rudiment- 
ary. It  appeals  to  a  higher  grade  of  spiritual 
development.  Transfer  it  to  the  beginning  of 
Christ's  ministry,  and  you  at  once  perceive 
that  it  does  not  fit  there.  "  The  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  at  the  opening  of  the  ministry, 
and  the  address  in  the  upper  chamber  de- 
livered at  its  close,  are  separated  from  each 
other,  not  only  by  difference  of  circumstance 
and  feeling,  but  as  implying  on  the  part  of 
the  hearers  wholly  different  stages  in  the 
knowledge   of  truth."  *     Matthew   throws   a 


*  Thomas  Dehany  Bernard,  "  The  Progress  of 
Docti'ine  in  the  New  Testament."  This  most  valu- 
able and  suggestive  book,  of  which  a  cheap  Amer- 
ican Edition  has  been  published,  ought  to  be  on  the 
desk  of  every  Bible-class  teacher.  On  this  topic 
the  teacher  may  also  profitably  consult  Canon  West- 
cott's  "  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels," 
another  convenient  and  admirable  manual. 


jg  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

bridge  from  the  old  economy  to  the  neAV. 
John  carries  forward  the  piers  toward  that 
final  heavenly  economy  of  which  he  gives  us 
a  glimpse  in  the  Apocalypse.  In  Matthew 
we  have  Jesus  as  the  Messiah  ;  in  John  as  the 
Eternal  Word.  In  Matthew  He  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  prophecy.  In  John  He  is  Himself 
the  prophet  and  the  earnest  of  better,  heav- 
enly things  to  come.  "  His  record  is  a  creative 
source,  and  not  a  summary ;  the  opening  of  a 
new  field  of  thought,  and  not  the  gathered 
harvest."  Matthew  keeps  Christ  before  us  as 
the  interpreter  and  fulfiller  of  the  law :  in 
John  He  appears  introducing  the  grander  and 
richer  economy  of  the  Spirit.  In  the  one  He 
satisfies  the  law,  in  the  other  the  want  of  hu- 
manity. John  represents  Him  as  the  world's 
life ;  the  disciple's  friend  and  teacher ;  the  ob- 
ject of  faith,  the  magnet  of  love,  the  focal 
point  of  prayer,  the  goal  of  hope,  the  inspirer 
of  service.  Matthew's  backward  look  stops 
at  Abraham ;  John  leads  us  back  into  the 
eternal  past,  where  dwelt  the  Word  before 
Abraham  was.  In  Matthew  we  have  the  new 
interpretation  of  old  precept;  in  John,  the 
fact  and  the  S3cret  of  fellowship.  Matthew 
tells  how  to  follow  Him,  John  how  to  abide 
in  Him.  Matthew's  gospel  is  the  gospel  of 
an  infant  church,  John's  of  a  matured  church. 


CHRIST  AS  A   TEACHER.  jg 

Or  take  the  parables.  Sometimes  it  seems 
as  if  Christ  were  repeating  Himself,  or  simply 
piling  up  illustration  round  a  single  truth.  On 
the  contrary,  it  will  always  be  found  that  the 
truth  is  many-sided,  and  that  the  illustra- 
tions grow  from  the  different  sides.  TThree 
vparables,  for  instance,  are  grouped  rouncTthe 
topic  of  Christ's  saving  the  lost :  the  Lost 
Sheep,  the  Lost  Coin,  and  the  Lost  Son. 
The  first  two  are  an  answer  to  the  Pharisees, 
who  complained  that  He  ate  with  publicans 
and  sinners,  and  who  counted  a  common  man 
of  less  value  than  a  sheep.  (JiLllie  third,  the 
explanation  of  His  conduct  is  referred  to  its 
higher  reason  as  the  work  of  the  Father.  In 
the  parable  of  the  sheep,  the  interest  centres 
in  the  loss :  of  the  coin,  in  the  search :  of  the 
son,  in  the  restoration.  '  In  the  first  is  pictured 
loss  through  stupid  an d~"BTm3r straying:  in  the 
second,  loss  in  the  very  sphere  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  through  the  power  of  worldly 
circumstance  which  withdraws  the  man  from 
circulation,  and  obscures  God's  image  in  him, 
as  the  dust  hides  the  superscription  of  the 
coin.  In  the  third,  loss  through  wilful  aban- 
donment of  filial  privilege :  so  that  we  see  loss 
under  the  three  aspects  of  witlessness,  useless- 
ness,  and — r-ebelliouoneGD. — ■  Once  more,  the 
seeker  of  the  lost  appears  under  the  pov/er  of 


20  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

three  motives  :  compassion  for  man's  misery  ; 
\asenseof_the  humblest  man's  transcendent 
V^^alue  ;  and  consummate  fatherly  love. 

Or  look  at  the  two  parables  which  set  forth 
the  lesson  of  faithful  service  : — The  Talents 
and  the  Pounds.  These  are  not  the  same. 
Luke  does  not  put  Matthew  into  another 
form.  The  lessons  are  different.  \  Look  at 
Luke.  Ten  servants:  a  pound  to h:a(!Trser- 
vant :  interest  ten  pounds  for  one :  reward, 
ten  cities,  and  "  good  servant."  Literest  five 
pounds  for  one ;  reward  five  cities,  and  no 
"  good  servant."  In  other  words,  endowment 
equal,  interest  unequal,  standard  of  merit 
and  of  reward  determined  by  amount  or 
quantity ;  ten  cities  for  ten  per  cent. ;  five 
cities  for  five  per  cent.,  with  an  unpleasant 
hint  in  the  omission  of  "  good  servant." 
Now  turn  to  Matthew.  Three  servants  :  five 
talents  to  one,  two  to  another,  one  to  the 
third.  Interest  five  talents  on  five;  reward, 
"  Good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  into  the  joy 
of  thy  Lord."  Interest  two  talents  on  two. 
Reward,  "  Good  and  faithful  servant,  enter 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."  Thus  we  have, 
endowment  unequal,  interest  unequal,  but  re- 
ward equal :  standard  of  merit  and  of  reward 
determined  not  by  quantity,  but  by  quality. 
The  same  reward  is  assigned  to  different  quan- 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 


21 


titles  because  both  bear  the  common  stamp 
of  faithfuhiess.  In  short,  where  servants 
equally  endowed  make  an  unequal  use  of 
their  endowments,  they  are  unequally  re- 
warded. Where  servants  unequally  endowed 
are^  equally  faithful^  the_  reward  is  equal.* 

(Take  the  "  Beatitudes  "'.  at  the  opening  of 
the  Sernioii' ITn'^tlTe 'ftfouht.  Do  you  think 
that  those  blessings  are  thrown  out^t  random, 
and  that  it  would  make  no  difference  whether 
our  Lord  should  begin  with  "  Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit,"  or  "  Blessed  are  they  that  are 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake"?  Not  so 
indeed.  !rhis  sexigs-  is.xonstrucJted  onjt_defi- 
nite  plan,  and  proceeds  wath  a  close^  inner^ 
logical_C£nnection.  Note  first  how  the  bless- 
ings fall  into  two  groups,  answering  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  both  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the 
Decalogue  :^\the_first  four,  like  the  first  four 
commandments,  and  the  first  four  items  of 
the  Lord's  prayer,.] ooking  upward,  from  earth_ 
to  heavenj_.froin .  man  ,  to  God,  an^  indicating 
qualities  in  man  as  related  to  God  :  ithe_other 
"group  looking  earthward,^ and _c gnj; exDpl at i n g 


*  I  would  earnestly  recommend  teachers  to  pro- 
cure and  study  Dr.  A.  B.  Bruce's  work  on  "  The 
Parabolic  Teaching  of  Christ."  It  is  published  by 
A.  C.  Armstronj^  &  Son. 


22 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 


manls..-relationsto  his  fellow-man,  and  to  his 
earthly  surroundings. 

Then,  note  further,  a  progress  in  the  ar- 
rangement. The  sermon  starts  from  a  point 
outside  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  shows  us_ 
Tiow  a  man  comes  into  it.  The  blessings, 
therefore,  follow  the  steps  of  progress  toward 
citizenship.  Our  Lord  brings  the  kingdom 
of  Heaven  at  once  into  the  field  of  vision. 
The  man  says,  "  What  is  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  to  me  ?  Why  should  I  want  it  ? " 
That  is  the  very  question.  Are  you  conscious 
of  any  reason  why  you  should  want  it  ?  Do 
you  feel  any  need  of  it?  If  not,  you  will  not 
gain  it,  for  only  those  who  feel  such  a  need 
seek  and  find  it.  Hence,  "  Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit"  could  properly  stand  nowhere 
else  than  at  the  beginning.  Poverty  of  spirit 
means  just  what  poverty  means  always  and 
everywhere.  It  means  to  the  spiritual  and 
moral  nature  what  being  poor  means  to  the 
pocket,  to  the  appetite,  to  the  naked  and 
chilled  body — conscious  want:  a  sense  of 
emptiness.  Spiritually,  it  is  the  opposite  of 
self-satisfaction ;  and  no  man  will  seek  the 
kingdom  of  God,  of  which  the  first  principle 
is  "  Deny  self,"  so  long  as  he  is  satisfied  with 
self. 

When  one  has  squarely  confronted  his  need, 


CHRIST  AS  A   TEACHER.  2^ 

and  has  confessed  to  himself,  "  I  am  poverty- 
stricken  at  the  very  sources  of  my  being,"  the 
result  will  be  mourning.  There  will  be  some- 
thing in  him  answering  to  the  poor  man's 
gnawing  pain  from  hunger,  and  his  chill  from 
cold.  Therefore  mourning  drops  naturally 
into  the  second  place.  A  Roman  poet  tells 
us  how  one  of  the  gates  of  the  city  of  Rome 
was  always  dropping  moisture  from  its  arches. 
It  is  a  type  of  the  entrance  to  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  which  is  through  tears.  The  sorrow 
is  the  sorrow  of  conscious  mistake,  of  disap- 
pointment, of  wounded  pride,  of  newly  dis- 
covered weakness  and  sinfulness :  sorrow 
over  emptiness  of  wisdom,  of  satisfaction,  of 
cause  for  self-gratulation,  of  strength  and  of 
goodness. 

The  man  who  is  really  hungry  and  thirsty 
will  take  such  food  as  you  give  him.  The 
beggar  is  not  the  chooser.  Sorrow  accom- 
plishes nothing  until  it  brings  us  down  to  the 
point  where  we  are  ready,  not  only  to  accept 
and  endorse  God's  charge  of  weakness  and 
error,  but  to  take  His  remedy  for  these,  what- 
ever it  be :  ready  and  willing  to  be  fed  with 
God's  meat ;  to  take  God's  prescription  for 
sin  ;  to  take  Christ's  yoke  of  docility  and  sub- 
missive obedience.  Here,  therefore.  Meek- 
ness, the  spirit  of    absolute   submission   and 


24  CHRIST  AS  A   TEACHER. 

subjection,  grounded  in  a  true  humility,  falls 
into  its  appropriate  place. 

From  a  sorrowful  and  often  vague  sense  of 
need,  and  a  meek  willingness  to  confess  its 
source  and  to  have  it  supplied  in  God's  own 
way  and  on  God's  own  terms,  we  move  on  to 
the  clearer  definition  of  the  need  itself.  The 
man  finds  out  what  he  wants.  All  his  sense 
of  emptiness  and  his  consequent  mourning 
and  submissiveness  now  run  into  the  channel 
of  one  great  desire — to  be  holy.  He  hungers 
and  thirsts  after  righteousness.  Christ  says 
to  him,  "The  thing  you  have  all  along  wanted 
is  Tightness ;  right  relation  to  me  and  to  my 
law  and  to  my  children.  Seek  that  first — my 
kingdom  and  my  rightness."  This  desire  is 
no  sickly  sentiment.  Hunger  and  thirst  mean 
vigorous  appetite.  Holiness  is  adapted  to 
call  out  all  the  best  energies.  Our  Lord  and 
His  apostles  never  contemplate  any  lower 
ideal  than  an  enthusiasm  in  its  pursuit.  You 
see  how  naturally  this  beatitude  falls  into  line 
with  the  others.  Poverty  of  spirit  engenders 
mourning ;  mourning,  meekness ;  poverty, 
mourning,  meekness,  issue  in  holy  desire,  and 
desire  in  satisfaction.     "  They  shall  be  filled." 

Now  we  turn  earthward.  A  man  filled  with 
God's  righteousness,  which  includes  joy  and 
peace,  can  not  keep  it  to  himself.    Righteous- 


CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  2  C 

ness  is  in  him,  not  as  dead  precept,  but  as  "a 
fountain  of  water  springing  up."  Righteous- 
ness, Hke  water  in  a  reservoir,  is  pervaded 
with  a  thrust  and  pressure  outward  and  down- 
ward toward  men.  It  will  get  out  of  the  man, 
and  flow  to  his  brethren  in  the  form  of  mercy. 
The  next  blessing,  as  we  might  expect,  is  on 
the  merciful,  Mercy  is  rightness  toward  God 
taking  shape  in  loving  rightness  toward  men. 
It  grows  out  of  righteousness  as  a  branch  from 
a  vine.  You  find  the  same  essential  connec- 
tion between  righteousness  and  mercy  in  the 
Old  Testament.  Says  the  Psalmist,  "  Unto 
Thee,  O  Lord,  belongeth  mercy,  for  Thou 
renderest  to  every  man  according  to  his  work." 
There  is  no  clash  between  righteousness  and 
mercy,  as  is  so  often  assumed.  It  was  the 
highest  righteousness  which  gave  the  world 
the  grandest  token  of  mercy.  It  is  the  Just 
who  is  the  Justifier. 

But  here  we  are  guarded.  There  is  a  some- 
thing called  mercy  which  has  no  essential  con- 
nection with  righteousness ;  but  is  merely  a 
natural,  humane  impulse,  a  kindly  "good-na- 
ture," which  often  finds  expression  in  kind 
and  helpful  deeds,  but  which  often  goes  hand 
in  hand  with  unbridled  self-indulgence. 
Righteousness  is  the  test  of  mercy  on  the  one 
side ;    now   Christ   puts   a  test   on  the    other 


25  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

side  : — Purity  of  heart ;  righteousness  at  its 
fountain-head.  Therefore  we  recognize  the 
true  place  of  the  next  beatitude,  "  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart." 

Then,  for  I  must  hasten  on,  a  pure  heart  is 
a  peaceful  heart,  because  at  peace  with  God ; 
and  such  a  heart  seeks  to  be  at  peace  with 
men,  and  studies  the  things  which  make  for 
peace.  Notice  that  the  blessing  is  not  to 
peaceable  men,  but  to  makers  of  peace  ;  pro- 
moters of  it  among  their  brethren.  It  is  the 
part  of  a  righteous  man  not  only  to  "  keep 
the  peace "  himself,  but  to  come,  bringing 
Christ's  olive-branch  into  the  midst  of  their 
dissensions  and  strifes.  This,  then,  is  the  true 
place  for  the  blessing  on  the  Peacemakers. 

But  to  such  an  one,  peace  means,  first  of 
all,  right.  He  knows  no  peace  at  the  expense 
of  right.  Christ  is  the  "Prince  of  peace,' 
but  righteousness  is  the  "  girdle  of  his  loins." 
Hence  Christ's  disciple  inevitably  comes  into 
collision  with  an  unrighteous  world,  and  the 
result  is  persecution  for  righteousness'  sake. 
The  very  lips  which  uttered  this  beatitude, 
said,  "  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword." 
This  blessing  rightly  closes  the  list.  It  would 
be  manifestly  out  of  place  at  the  beginning. 
It  presupposes  all  that  is  contained  in  the 
preceding  beatitudes. 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  2  7 

i^So  of  the  Lord's  prayer.  Put  "  Our  Father 
which  art~irr~H"eaven,"  anywhere  but  at  the 
beginning,  and  see  if  you  can  pray  that  prayer. 
Begin,  for  instance,  with  "  Thy  kingdom 
come."  What  a  tremendous  question,  what 
an  awful  doubt  you  encounter  at  once.  "  Thy 
kingdom  "  !  But  whose  kingdom  ?  What  is 
it,  or  who  is  it  that  we  are  inviting  to  lay  us 
under  absolute  subjection  and  tribute?  Is  it 
a  beneficent  power,  or  a  power  of  evil  and 
tyranny?  The  doubt  is  forestalled  by  the 
words  ''  Our  Father,  Thy  kingdom  come." 
But  not  to  dwell  on  the  matter  of  order  and 
progress  in  the  Lord's  prayer,  note  the  mirac- 
ulous way  in  which  the  whole  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  packed  into  it.  Take  up  that  ser- 
mon at  any  point,  and  you  will  strike  a  line 
leading  directly  to  the  Lord's  prayer.  A 
heavenly  economy  of  life  must  include  some 
provision  for  putting  and  keeping  us  con- 
sciously in  contact  with  Heaven.  It  must  be  an 
economy  which  we  can  pray  as  well  as  live. 
And  therefore  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
which  is  the  manual  of  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  the  exposition  of  the  divine  economy 
of  life,  has  a  prayer  bedded  in  its  heart,  and 
connected  by  living  fibres  with  its  entire  struc- 
ture. TheJLorc^'g  pray£r_i5^.t]3£^~S£mLQiUga  =-> 
the  Mount  cast  into  aspiration. 


23  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

I  have  only  to  remark  farther,  that  Christ 
shows  His  consummate  art  as  a  teacher  by 
His  skilful  veiling  and  draping  of  His  lines  of 
system.  The  fault  of  many  teachers  is  in  un- 
duly ernphasizing  their  plan.  A  Sunday-school 
lesson  may  be  so  ingeniously  constructed  as  to 
draw  all  the  attention  to  its  structure,  while 
its  subject-matter  goes  begging  ;  and  many  a 
preacher  has  spoiled  a  sermon  by  keeping  the 
lines  and  joints  of  his  plan  constantly  on  the 
surface.  Nature  gives  us  a  lesson  on  this  point. 
She  is  the  greatest  of  systematizers,  Avith  the 
widest  range  and  the  richest  variety  in  her  sur- 
face developments.  She  builds  a  man  over  a 
skeleton,  but  she  hides  the  skeleton;  and  it  is 
the  flash  of  the  eye,  the  mobility  and  variety 
of  expression,  the  inflections  of  the  voice,  the 
infinite  diversity  of  movement  and  attitude, 
which  appeal  to  us,  and  not  the  nice  articula- 
tion of  bones.  With_jCbxisi:»jn fi th od-jyas..  a 
means  and  not  an  end.  He  aimed  at  direct 
contact  of  the  heart  with  the  living  substance 
of  His  speech  ;  and  it  was  because  nothing  was 
suffered  to  stand  between  these,  that  men  said, 
"  Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 

CHRIST  A   GREA.T   QUESTIONER. 

I  have  but  a  few  minutes  left  for  one  other 
point.     Christ  was  a  great  questioner. 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 


29 

It  is  a  common  saying  tliat  any  fool  may 
ask  a  question  wliich  a  wise  man  can  not  an- 
swer. That  is  true ;  but  it  does  not  follow 
that  any  fool  knows  how  to  question.  It  re- 
quires quite  as  much  wisdom  to  put  questions 
as  to  answer  them.  Christ  was  early  found  in 
the  temple  asking  questions ;  not  indeed  as  a 
teacher,  for  a  lecturing  Christ-child  would  have 
been  a  monstrosity  befitting  the  Apocryphal 
gospels  rather  than  the  narratives  of  the  Evan- 
gelists. But  those  old  Rabbis  knew  what  apt 
questioning  was,  and  they  were  astonished  at 
the  wisdom  of  His  questions  as  well  as  of  His 
answers.  Socrates  was  a  master  of  the  art  ; 
and  it  is  the  skilful,  subtle  questioning  which 
leads  on  and  sustains  our  interest  through  a 
dialogue  of  Plato.  Paul  deals  much  in  inter- 
rogation. In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  you 
will  find  six  questions  in  the  second  chapter, 
sixteen  in  the  third,  six  in  the  sixth,  nine  in 
the  ninth,  ten  in  the  eleventh ;  and  so  in 
other  epistles.  Christ's  teaching  abounds  in 
question,  and  in  question  aimed  at  a  great  va- 
riety of  ends.  If  you  assume  the  teacher  at 
your  first  contact  with  the  uninstructed,  you 
are  quite  as  likely  to  excite  his  resentment  as 
his  interest  or  respect ;  for  ignorance  is  gen- 
erally conceited,  and  it  touches  his  conceit, 
not  that  you  should  know  more  than  he  does, 


OQ  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

but  that  you  should  assume  to  know  more.  If 
you  make  him  a  sharer  in  your  thought  by  a 
question  which  appeals  to  his  thought,  you 
catch  him  on  the  side  of  his  sympathy. 

You  will  observe  how  often  Christ  intro- 
ducesTTis  lessons  by  a  question,  apparently 
V^y"  simple  and  commonplace,  which  draws 
the  hearer's  mind  into  His  own  train  of  thought 
and"ehlist"s  his  attention  and  interest  before 
he  knows  it.  "What  think  ye  ?  If  a  man 
have  an  hundred  sEeep,' and  one  go  astray, 
doth  he  not  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  and  go 
after  the  one?"  "  Wliat „think- ye  of  the 
Christ  ?  Whose  son  is  he  ?  "  Or  sometimes 
He  tells  a  story,  as  He  only  knew  how  to  tell 
it,  and  then  a  question  puts  the  clew  of  the 
lesson  into  the  hearer's  hand,  and  sets  him  at 
following  it  up.  '/'Which  now  of  these  three 
thinkest  thou  was  neighbor  to  him  that  fell 
among  thieves  ?  "  "  The  Lord  frankly  forgave 
both  the  debtors :  Simon,  which  of  the  two 
will  love  Him  most?"  The  questiqn,^j;  the 
beginning  has  a  power  of  arrest  ;_at  the  end, 
a_]30wer  of  Iqdgmejit^  Sometimes  He  combines 
the  two,  as  in  the  story  of  the  two  sons  sent 
into  the  vineyard  :  "  What  think  ye  ?  "  and, 
at  the  end,  ''  Whether  of  the  twain  did  the 
will  of  his  father?"  Sometimes  He  uses  a 
question  to  silence  or  to  commit  an  adversary : 


CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  ^  j 

"The  baptism  of  John,  was  it  from  heaven  or 
of  men  ?  "  or  in  the  parable  of  the  wicked  hus- 
bandmen :  "  What  shall  therefore  the  Lord 
of  the  vineyard  do  ?  "  Sometimes,  again,  to 
make  a  point  on  which  to  hang  a  lesson.  - 
"  Those  eighteen  on  whom  the  tower  in  Siloam 
fell, — suppose  ye  they  were  sinners  above  all 
that  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  ?  I  tell  you  nay  ;  but 
except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 
Sometimes,  to  bring  home  a  truth  of  God's 
love  and  tenderness  by  a  familiar  analogy. 
''  If  your  son  ask  bread,  will  you  give  him  a 
stone?  "  "  If  God  clothe  the  grass,  shall  He 
not  much  more  clothe  you  ?  "  Or  again,  to 
bring  an  every-day  truth  over  into  the  moral 
consciousness :  "  Do  men  gather  grapes  of 
thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ?  "  "  Which  of  you, 
proposing  to  build  a  tower,  does  not  first  count 
the  cost  ?  "  Or,  once  more,  to  bring  out  some 
conceit  or  delusion,  as  when,  at  the  close  of 
the  series  of  parables  in  the  thirteenth  of 
Matthew,  He  asks,  "  Have  ye  understood  all 
these  things?  "  One  is  tempted  to  smile  at 
the  ready  complacency  with  which  they  an- 
swered, "  Yea,  Lord  !  " 


II. 

At  the  conclusion  of  my  lecture  last  year, 
you  kindly  requested  me  to  discuss  some  other 
aspects  of  the  same  subject  at  which  I  hinted, 
but  which  I  had  not  time  to  treat  then.  Re- 
suming, therefore,  the  former  theme,  I  shall 
speak  first  of 

CHRIST  AS  A   GREAT  ILLUSTRATOR. 

All  great  teachers  have  recognized  the  power 
of  illustration.  Plato  revels  in  it.  Dante's 
"  Commedia  "  and  Homer's  "  Iliad  "  and  "  Od- 
yssey "  are  picture-books.  The  part  of  a  ser- 
mon which  sticks,  is  the  illustrative  part.  Often 
the  hearer  will  carry  away  nothing  else.  Dr. 
Beman,  of  Troy,  used  to  say  that  if  he  wanted 
to  preach  an  old  sermon  and  not  have  it  recog- 
nized (a  very  useless  precaution,  by  the  way), 
he  took  out  the  bears ;  meaning  those  striking 
illustrations  which,  being  lodged  in  the  hearers' 
memory,  would  serve  to  identify  the  sermon. 
Unless  he  put  in  some  other  "  animals "  of 
the  same  kind,  I  must  needs  say,  with  all  rev- 
erence to  his  memory,  that  he  was  likely  to 
purchase  concealment  at  the  expense  of  inter- 
(32) 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  ,- 

est.  You  can  not  teach  children  effectively 
without  illustration.  You  must  appeal  to  the 
eye ;  and  that  fact  is  recognized  in  the  best 
modern  educational  systems.  And  in  the  pro- 
cess  oi  learnnig,  the'average  man  is  not  greatly 
in  advance  of  the  child  as  respects  this  matter. 
Not  logic,  but  seeing,_Js_Uie  shortest  way  to 
truth.  Seeing  is  believing.  Christ  came,  a 
light  into  the  world,  that  men  might  know 
the  truth.  Most  words  are  originally  meta- 
phors or  picture-forms  into  which  the  primi- 
tive man  casts  a  statement.  After  a  time  the 
lines  of  the  picture  fade,  and  the  word  be- 
comes merely  the  symbol  of  a  fact,  yet  it 
always  carries  the  original  picture  deep  down 
in  its  heart.  It  was  something  beside  super- 
stition which  filled  the  old  churches  Avith 
paintings  and  mosaics.  Men^an  not  always 
read  books,  but  they  can  jead  pictures.  When 
there  were  no  books  or  few  books,  and  reading 
was  confined  to  priests,  they  did  the  people  a 
Christian  service  who  painted  their  Gospel  for 
them.  So,  when  the  worshipper  could  read 
the  story  of  the  creative  week  on' the  choir- 
walls  of  Monreale,  or  the  stories  of  Abraham 
and  Sarah  and  Melchizedek  behind  the  altar 
of  San  Vitale  at  Ravenna,  or  could  follow  the 
whole  history  of  redemption  in  St.  Mark's  at 
Venice,  from  the  fall  of  man,  and  the  lives  of 


»A  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

the  patriarchs  hi  the  portico,  to  the  ascension 
of  Jesus  in  the  overarching  dome, —  he  was 
not  without  a  Bible.  We  forget  sometimes 
how  much  the  painters  helped  to  carry  the 
truth  of  the  Gospel  over  the  gap  of  the  dark 
ages. 

Illustrations   serve    the    same   purpose,  for 
illustrations  are   pictures^      The   highest   en- 
"jiorsement  of  ilTustrative  teaching -is -furnished., 
by  Christ.     Let  us_consider  sonie  of  the  char- 
acteristics  oF^his   method  as   employed,  .by;. 
Him.' 

It  is  essential  to  a  good  illustration  that  it 
should  turn  on  a  point  common  to. theimder- 
standing  of  teacher  and  pupil  alike.  If  I  were 
trying  to  teach  an  African  savage  a  religious 
truth  by  means  of  an  illustration  drawn  from 
the  use  of  the  telephone,  I  should  only  con- 
fuse him,  and  give  him  two  difficulties  for  one. 
He  does  not  know  what  a  telephone  is,  to  be- 
gin with.  I  could  do  it  with  an  illustration 
taken  from  his  bow  or  canoe  or  war-club,  for 
both  he  and  I  know  what  those  are  and  what 
they  mean. 

You  observe,  therefore,  that  Christ's  illus- 
trat[ons^^bya^-statt^ffom  a  point  as  familiar 
to  His  hearers  as  to  Himself.  If  He  had  cited 
some  marvel  of  the  spiritual  world  out  of 
which  He  came,  some  most  ordinary  feature 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  ^j- 

of  His  heavenly  dwelling-place,  they  would 
only  have  stared  at  Him,  and  their  interest  in 
the  truth  He  was  expounding  would  have 
given  place  to  curiosity  excited  by  this  new 
wonder.  Instead  of  that,  He  takes  a  man 
building  a  house,  or  findings  treasure  jn  a  field, 
or  sowing  seed,  or  catching  fislv^or  a  woman 
sweeping  the  floor  or  making  bread.  He  sets 
the  hearer  on  the  farhiliar,  commonplace  truth, 
so  that  from  it  he  can  reach  up  to  the  higher 
and  less  familiar  spiritual  truth. 

Hence  our  Lord  drew  a  great  many  of  His 
illustrations  from  nature.  AIT'  HlS'  hearers 
knew  how  seed  was  sown  and  the  stages  by 
which  it  grew.  They  were  familiar  with  the 
stony  and  the  thorny  ground  and  the  hard- 
beaten  wayside.  They  were  wont  to  watch 
the  changes  of  the  sky,  and  they  knew  the 
quick^nsing  and..the- terribIe._.sj(Vejep  .of  the 
mountain  torrent,  .They  had  considered  the 
lilies,  the  sparrows,  and  the  reed  shaken  with 
the  wind.  Even  the  familiar  aspects  of  nature, 
however,  never  appeal  to  men  so  strongly  as 
when  they  are  somehow  associated  with  man's 
person  or  work  or  danger  or  pleasure  :  and 
therefore,  in  Christ's  illustrations  from  nature, 
He  draws  largely  on  its  aspects  after  it  has 
"t^t  tHgUiaj^oT' mah7"""Hg~tTrke5  "Hrs-hearc^rs 
to  the  vineyard,  but  the  husbandman  is  there, 


^5  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

tending  and  pruning  the  vines.  To  the  field, 
but  the  sower  comes,  scattering  seed  by  the 
wayside  and  among  the  thorns.  He  bids 
them  mark  the  sparrows,  but  they  are  the 
dead  sparrows,  strung  on  spits,  and  sold  in 
the  market.  He  tells  of  the  flocks,  but  the 
prominent  figure  is  the  good  shepherd  ;  of 
the  mountain  torrent,  but  as  it  sweeps  away 
the  foolish  man's  house  from  its  sandy  foun- 
dation. 

The  significance  of  this  feature  of  Christ's 
illustrative  teaching  is  too  large  a  subject  to 
-be  discussed  here,  but  the  theme  is,  neverthe- 
less, too  tempting  to  be  dismissed  without  a 
few  words.  This  habitual  association  of  na- 
ture with  man  furnishes  more  than  a  hint  of 
The  depth  of  Christ's  insight  into  nature,  and 
of  the  comprehensiveness  and  symmetry  of 
His  view  of  the  universe ;  for  it  reveals  His 
recognition  of  the  fact  that,jTature  finds  its., 
chief  significance  and  its  highest  interpreta-.- 
'^on  in  man.  Nature,  even  on  the  physical 
'"side,  does  not  give  up  its  best  to  the  bird  or 
the  beast.  The  jungle,  however  luxuriant, 
can  never  mean  nor  yield  so  much  as  the  field 
of  sown  corn.  But,  in  its  association  with 
man,  nature  yields  more  than  food  or  build- 
ing material.  It  furnishes  spiritual  and  moral 
lessons  which  have  no  meaning  and  no  appli- 


CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHE R.  0-7 

cation  apart  from  man,  and  which  only  man 
can  receive  and  approiariate.  The  whole  spir- 
itual meaning  of  nature  lies  latent  until  nature 
is  touched  by  man.  And  this  meaning  our 
Lord  is  at  pains  that  men  should  extract  from 
it.  He  would  have  them  know  that  this  rela- 
tion between  man  and  nature  enables  him  to 
make  even  brute  bulks  and  familiar  physical 
forces  vocal  with  truths  of  the  soul.  He  is 
not  satisfied  that  they  should  draw  from  na- 
ture only  bread  and  drink  and  impressions  of 
form  and  color ;  and  accordingly  he  lifts  na- 
ture into  the  seat  of  a  spiritual  teacher.  The 
corn  of  wheat,  casting  its  seed-form  and  tak- 
ing on  the  nobler  vesture  of  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear,  in  some  valley  unvisited  by  man, 
means  only  a  few  grains  for  the  bird  or  a 
mouthful  for  the  browsing  beast.  When  man 
comes,  only  then,  Christ  comes  and  makes 
that  dying  and  risen  wheat-corn  a  lesson  and 
a  type  of  death  unto  self,  spiritual  resurrec- 
tion, and  moral  fruitfulness. 

Paul,  though  surely  not  blind  to  this  truth, 
does  not  work  it  into  his  teaching  as  Christ 
does.  In  his  Epistles  we  breathe  chiefly  "  the 
air  of  cities  and  synagogues."  He  draws  very 
sparingly  on  Nature  for  illustration,  and  mani- 
festly lacks  that  quick  and  exquisite  suscepti- 
bility to  the  various  phases  of  nature  which 


^' 


og  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

SO  strongly  marks  our  Lord.  Yet  there  is, 
even  at  this  point,  a  deep-lying  resemblance 
between  them,  in  that  both  see  "the  universe 
of  God  as  it  is  reflected  in  the  heart  and  life 
"oTTnan."  No  one  can  help  feeling  this  in 
reading  Paul's  words  in  the  eighth  of  Romans, 
on  the  "  groan  and  travail  "  of  the  creation — 
the  sympathy  of  man's  material  and  animal 
environment  with  the  pangs  and  longings  of 
fallen  humanity.'^ 

From  his  habit  of_s£le.ctingjamiliar  things 
for  illustrations,  we  are  quite  prepared  to  find 
his  range  of  illustration  extending  into  the 
domestic  and  business  spheres.  Men  are  fa- 
miliar most  of  all  with  their  homes.  There- 
fore we  are  pointed  to  the  grainymeasurg, 
which  was  in  every  house,  together  with  the 
lamp-stand  and  the  bed.  The  woman  loses 
her  silver  in,  the  house,  and  lights  her  lamp 


*  I  can  not  but  think  that  Canon  Farrar  ("  Life  and 
Work  of  St.  Paul,"  I.,  18-21)  is  rather  too  sweeping 
in  his  assertion  that  Paul  "  reveals  not  the  smallest 
susceptibility  for  the  works  of  nature."  I  fear  I 
must  have  failed  to  apprehend  his  meaning,  where 
he  says  that  the  illustration  of  the  wild-olive  graft 
(Rom.  xi.  16-25)  is  "the  only  elaborate  illustration 
v/hich  Paul  draws  from  nature  ";  for  it  seems  incon- 
ceivable that  the  Canon  should  have  overlooked  the 
fifteenth  of  First  Corinthians.  Indeed  he  cites  the 
allusion  to  the  stars  in  v.  41. 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  ^g 

and  sweeps.  TheJjome-lifg.Js ,the  background 
of  the  story  of  the  prodigal.  There  is  the 
Vv^edding  feast,  and  the  servant  sitting  up  for 
his  master ;  the  boy  asking  his  father  for  a 
cake  of  bread  ;  the  washing  of  the  dishes,  and 
the  rich  man  building  new  barns.  The  con- 
ceited guest  enters  and  takes  the  first  place  at 
the  banquet ;  the  woman  sets  her  bread  to 
rise,  or  grinds  at  the  handmill ;  the  scoundrel 
sows  darnel  by  night  among  the  wheat,  and 
the  belated  traveller  knocks  at  midnight  at 
his  neighbor's  door,  and  asks  for  a  loaf  of 
bread.  The  pictures  are  from  the  market  and 
the  street  also  ;  sometimes  flashing  out  from  a 
single  word.  ''  Good  measure  shall  men  give 
ijito  your  bosom  "/  a  dark  saying  to  the  man 
who  goes  to  Washington  market  with  his 
basket  on  his  arm,  but  not  so  to  the  oriental, 
into  the  loose  bosom  of  whose  robe  the  trader 
would  pour  the  day's  supply  of  grain.  The 
servants  are  away  with  their  pounds  to  the 
money-changers ;  the  steward  bustles  about 
among  his  lord's  creditors  ^id  discounts  their 
bills  for  cash  ;  the  creditor  chokes  his  debtor 
on  the  highway,  and  the  widow  pleads  her 
cause  before  the  judge  in  the  gate. 

Jn  our  Lord's  teachin_gjjiioreover,  the  illus- 
tration.  is  invariably  subgrdiiiate.  to •  the  truth 
illustxated,   and   grows   naturally   out    of    it. 


AQ  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

Unlike  some  modern  teachers,  He  does  not 
first  light  on  His  illustration  and  then  trim 
and  mould  the  truth  to  fit  it.  There  are  no 
stained  windows  in  the  structure  of  Christ's 

^^Srourse,  to  stay'ftle  eye~"'~giri"themselves. 
The  illustrations  are  for  letting  in  li^ht  upon 
the  truth.__You  can  easily  see  that  the  great 

^IHeme  of  the  relations  of  men^s  souls  to  truth 
and  their  attitude  toward  God's  Word,  sug- 
gests the  i]lustratioii_of^  the  seed  on  different 
soils,  and  that  the  jprocess  is  not  the  contrary 
one.  You  can  easily  see  tliat  the-grand  con- 
ception of  the  pervasion  of  society  with  the 
spirit  and  law  of  God,  came,  in  Christ's  mind, 
before  the  picture  of  the  woman  hiding 
the  leaven.  The  greater  suggested  the  less. 
The  illustration  does  not  dominate  the  truth 
nor  distract  the  attention  from  the  truth 
to  itself.  Some  teachers  pour  forth  such  a 
bewildering  variety  of  brilliant  illustration 
that  the  pupil  loses  sight  of  the  truth  al- 
together. Not  a  few  modern  sermons  have 
had  their  genesis* in  a  telling  anecdote  or  a 
striking  figure,  and  the  whole  sermon  has  been 
one  ingenious  inquisitorial  process  of  stretch- 
ing a  truth  upon  the  rack  of  that  pet  illus- 
tration. 

I     But  with  all  the  simplicity  of  Christ's-91us-  ' 
trations,  they  Tiave  arf  enormous  range.     On 


CHRrS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  a  j 

the  surface  they  sometimes  appear  to  explain 
merely  the  fragment  of  truth  thrown  out  by 
the  great  teacher  at  the  moment ;  but  the 
fragment,  on  examination,  reveals  connections, 
with  a  large- area  of  truth,  and  the  illustratiqii 
is  found' "toTgVef  the  entire  area'  no  less  than 
the  fragment.^  Take,  for  instance,  the  familiar 
parable  of  the  talents,  and  the  Lord's  com- 
ment. "  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given, 
from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away." 
That  truth  ranges  over  the  whole  physical^ 
intellectual,  and  spiritual  life  of  men.  THe 
old  woman  who  sells  peanuts  on  the  corner 
knows  perfectly  that  she  must  have  something 
to  buy  her  peanuts  with,  before  she  can  realize 
a  profit  on  them.  She  and  the  capitalist  are 
alike  in  that.  Nothing  is  given  to  either  of 
them  without  their  first  having.  The  man 
who  has,  makes.  The  educated  and  trained 
man  masters  a  subject  or  does  a  piece  of  in- 
tellectual work  better  and  more  quickly  than 
the  untrained  man  of  equal  native  ability. 
He  wins  the  new  knowledge  through  the  dis- 
ciplined power  which  he  has.  An  artist  draws 
more  inspiration  and  more  ideas  in  a  day  from 
a  beautiful  landscape  than  the  ignorant  cow- 
feeder  who  has  passed  his  whole  life  amid  its 
beauties.  Nature  gives  to  the  mind  which 
has.     The  man  who  has  power  of  any  kind  is 


A 2  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

in  a  position  to  gain  more  power.  In  short, 
the  truth  holds  all  the  way  up,  that  capital 
brings  interest.  It  holds  in  religion  as  else- 
where. The  same  words — "JTo^him  that  hath 
shall  be_ given" — are  added  to  the  parable 
of  the  sower.  The  stress  is  laid,  in  that  par- 
able, not  on  the  seed,  which  is  assumed  to  be 
good,  but  on  the  soil.  Where  the  soil  had 
the  right  quality  with  which  to  meet  the  seed, 
there  was  fruit ;  though  there  was  a  difference 
in  the  fruitfulness  of  even  the  good  soil,  rep- 
resented by  thirty,  sixty,  and  a  hundred.  The 
interest  of  Gospel  truth  and  power  presup- 
poses the  possession  of  an  honest  and  good 
heart  in  the  recipient. 

You  can  follovv^  out  the  same  line  of  thought 
with  the  parables  of  the  Mustard-seed  and  the 
Leaven.  Or  take  Christ's  illustration  of  the 
corn  of  wheat.  How  far-reaching  is  the  truth 
it  carries ;  that  a  higher  form  of  life  is  always 
won  at  the  expense  of  a  lower;  that  the  high- 
est life  comes  through  death ;  that  all  success 
costs.  The  business-man  succeeds  at  the  price 
of  literary  leisure  and  culture  ;  the  boy  grows 
into  a  man  of  learning  and  thought  through 
the  partial  suppression  of  his  animal  instinct 
to  play ;  a  man  and  woman  attain  in  marriage 
that  joint  life  of  love,  of  higher  quality  than 
the  separate  individuality  of  either,  through 


CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  .  , 

the  partial  merging  of  each  individuality, 
Christ's  sharp  alternative  is,  the  world  or  the 
soul.  The  soul  is  won  at  the  price  of  the 
world.  The  sensual  life  must  go  under  if  the 
higher  life  of  faith  and  love  is  to  come  to 
fruitage.  So  you  see  that  the  illustration, 
beginning  iii_  agriculture,  covers  business  and 
learning  and  domestic  life  and  religiorr.  ^7 '~~" 

CHRIST  A   GREAT   NARRATOR. 

But  leaving  this  vein  of  thought,  let  us  ex- 
plore another  lying  close  beside  it.  Christ 
'was_a_^eat_narratoXu— It  is  a  great  art  to  be 
able  to  tell  a  story  well,  for  it  is  an  art  which 
appeals  to  all  mankind.  In  all  times  and 
countries  men  have  welcomed  the  story-teller. 
We  are  all  children  in  this.  It  does  not  show 
that  a  man  is  becoming  wiser  because  he  is 
losing  his  taste  for  stories.  The  child  and  the 
old  man  meet  here  on  common  ground.  It 
is  one  of  the  harmless  foibles  of  old  age  that 
it  repeats  its  old  stories.  Charles  Lamb  some- 
where tells  of  a  man  who  had  retired,  in  a 
green  old  age,  upon  forty  pounds  a  year  and 
one  anecdote.  The  great  successes  in  litera- 
ture have  been  largely  stories.  "  Robinson 
Crusoe,"  "The  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  and  "The 
Arabian  Nights,"  are  treasures  forever.  Ho- 
mer's "  Odyssey"  will  always  have  more  read- 


^.  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

ers  than  the  "  Iliad."  Froissart  will  be  well 
thumbed,  while  Hume  and  Lingard  gather 
dust  on  the  shelves.  Macaulay  will  never  lack 
readers,  because  he  has  imparted  to  English 
History  the  fascination  of  a  story;  and  Her- 
odotus will  continue  to  hold  his  own  among 
the  more  modern  magnates  of  history.  In 
any  circulating  library  they  will  tell  you  that 
the  demand  for  novels  exceeds  threefold  that 
for  any  other  class  of  books.  Ten  thousand 
of  "  Helen's  Babies,"  and  "  Barriers  Burned 
Away,"  are  sold  for  one  thousand  of  the  best 
essays  or  sermons  in  the  language.  Very  few 
people  now  living  have  read,  I  imagine,  Gold- 
smith's "  Animated  Nature,"  but  who  has  not 
read  "The  Vicar  of  Wakefield"?  The  Bible 
has  made  its  way  to  the  jpeopIe_  largely  by 
"itsstQiiesr--  The  boy  of  fifteen  knows  noth- 
ing about  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  but  he 
can  tell  you  all  about  Joseph  and  Moses  and 
Samson. 

Story-telling,  I  repeat,  is  an  art,  and  a  fine- 
art.  It  seems  as  though  it  might  be  an  easy 
thing  to  write  a  story  like  "  Robinson  Crusoe," 
but  try  it  once.  And  there  are  certain  features., 
■iYMdOf-you  notice,  are  "common  to  all  good 
story-tellers^  Their  first  object,  for  instance, 
is  to_tell_ the  story.  A  good  many  writers  at- 
tempt stories  as  a  kind  of  staging  for  their 


CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  a  k 

moral  reflections ;  and,  if  the  story  has  any  in- 
terest at  all,  you  usually  find  that  the  staging 
occupies  the  reader  so  that  he  overlooks  the 
building.  In  other  words,  he  skips  the  moral 
reflections  and  hurries  on  along  the  line  of  the 
story.  Again,  all  good  stories  run.  Chaucer's 
"Canterbury Tales,"  "Robinson Crusoe,"  "The 
Arabian  Nights,"  are  full  of  movement ;  and 
the  writers  of  popular  fiction  are  coming  to 
recognize  that  fact,  and  to  shape  their  produc- 
tions accordingly.  The  popular  romance  of 
the  day  is  not  the  old  three- volume  novel,  but 
the  short  story  with  a  simple  plot  and  a  suc- 
cession of  incidents  gathering  up  rapidly  to  a 
climax. 

Our  Lord  was  a  great  master  of  narrative, 
an  J  His  storres  exliibit  not  only  the  two  qual- 
ti'es-of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  but  oth- 
~>nt^  which  we  shall  note  later.  The  best  way 
to  illustrate  this  is  to  examine  one  of  His  sto- 
ries in  detail ;  and  we  can  not  hesitate  in  the 
choice  of  a  specimen,  for  the  story  of  the  Prnd- 
igal  Son  is  the  model  story  of  all  literature, 
Dolli  as  to  contents  and  method. 

^--Observe,  then,  that  Cb.rist  goes  straight  at 
the  story.  He  does  not  work  up  to  it  through 
any  elaborate  iiitroduction  or  learned  prelude.^ 
WeTTave  no  long  family  history  of  this  good 

old  father.    "A  certain  man" — no  matter  who 


^5  CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 

or  whence,  any  man  vvill  answer — "had  two 
sons."  There  is  no  display  of  the  narrator's 
power  of  analyzing  character  fastened  upon 
a  description  of  these  two  sons.  All  that 
the  reader  needs  to  know  about  them  is  left 
to  come  out  in  the  development  of  the  story 
itself. 

Then  follows  the  fact  out  of  which  the  plot 
of  the  story  grows.  Here,  too,  the  reader  is 
left  to  infer  for  himself  the  motives  and  feel- 
ings of  the  younger  son — what  he  had  been 
secretly  brooding  over ;  what  hopes  and  am- 
bitions he  had  been  fostering ;  the  whole  pro- 
cess by  which  he  had  worked  up  to  his  decisive, 
unfilial  act — all,  in  short,  which  would  have 
furnished  a  chapter  to  the  modern  philosoph- 
ical romancer.  The  young  man  is  introduced 
in  the  very  act  of  striking  the  blow  which  cuts 
him  loose  from  father  and  from  home.  A 
thoughtful  reader  will  gather  a  great  deal  from 
those  few  words,  as  Christ  meant  that  he 
should.  The  ingratitude,  the  insolence  of  the 
demand  for  his  portion  of  goods,  the  insensi- 
bility to  the  privilege  and  love  and  protection 
of  home — all  are  there,  but  wrapped  up  in 
the  simple  statement  of  his  wicked  act.  Here 
the  modern  dramatic  story-teller  would  have 
discovered  another  great  opportunity.  I  have 
somewhere   seen    this   part  of   the   narrative 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  ,j 

worked  up ;  how  the  old  man,  when  the  boy- 
came  into  his  presence,  was  seated  at  a  table 
counting  out,  with  trembling  hands,  a  great 
pile  of  gold  and  silver,  and  more  to  the  same 
effect.  Now  there  is  no  pause.  "  Not  long 
after."  Every  sentence  tells.  The  youth 
wanted  to  manage  his  own  affairs  absolutely. 
He  would  leave  nothing  in  his  father's  hands. 
"He  gathered  all  together,  and  straiglitzvay 
took  his  journey,"  and  went  as  far  away  as 
he  could,  "  into  a  far  country,"  out  of  reach 
of  fatherly  hearing  and  counsel.  And  now 
the  modern  prurient  story-teller  would  find 
his  chance  for  a  salacious  description  of  a 
luxurious  and  licentious  life.  That  is  one  of 
the  favorite  devices  of  the  devils  of  modern 
literature.  It  is  needless  to  remark  how  pure 
Christ's  stories  are.  He  uses  the  plainest  words 
where  there  is  occasion,  but  He  never  pictures 
sin  so  as  to  make  it  otherwise  than  ugly. 

Short  and  sharp  again,  but  how  vivid. 
"  Scattered  "  is  the  word  used  of  winnowing  the 
grain.  "He  scattered  his  substance,  living  un- 
savingly."  The  great  truth  that  absence  from 
God  is  waste  of  life  was  never  more  tersely  put : 
a  far  country  and  waste.  We  move  on  at  once  to 
the  consequence.  When  the  famine  came,  he 
had  nothing.  "  He  had  spent  allT  Moral  waste 
is  total  waste.     "  He  beran  to  be  in  want." 


A  3  CHI^/S T  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 

The  painful  and  sometimes  amusing  adven- 
tures of  reduced  men  in  search  of  employment 
have  furnished  many  a  good  story  ;  but  how 
powerfully  that  whole  stage  of  the  prodigal's 
career  is  put  by  the  use  of  a  single  peculiar 
word,  "  he  joined  himself  to  a  citizen."  The 
word  means  to  "  glue  "  or  "  stick  to  ";  and  its 
use  here  seems  to  imply  that  the  swine-owner 
was  not  over-eager  to  employ  him.  In  time 
of  famine  people  dispense  with  as  many  ser- 
vants as  possible ;  and  it  would  seem  as 
though  the  penniless  young  wanton  had  to 
force  himself  upon  the  citizen.  And  so  this 
swine-capitalist,  having  nothing  else  for  him 
to  do,  or  possibly  with  a  vulgar  satisfaction  at 
having  a  decayed  gentleman  at  his  mercy, 
sent  him  into  the  fields  to  feed  swine.  Here 
the  realistic  story-teller  would  disport  himself 
with  the  unsavory  details  of  swine-keeping, 
and  would  draw  out  the  contrast  with  the 
luxurious  halls  of  pleasure.  Nothing  of  this. 
The  one  thought  to  be  driven  home  at  this 
point  is  ivant.  You  see  what  a  quick  succes- 
sion and  sharp  putting  of  points  there  is : 
conceit  and  insubordination:  waste:  want. 
One  or  two  sentences  have  furnished  the 
world  a  synonym  for  soul  -  hunger.  "  He 
would  fain  have  filled  his  belly  with  the  husks 
which  the  swine  did   eat,  and  no   man  gave 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER.  aq 

unto  him."  He  had  wanted  the  wrong  thing 
all  along,  and  it  was  no  better  now.  All  he 
wanted  was  to  fill  his  belly.  Suffering  had 
not  yet  issued  in  longing  for  better  things. 

Now  another  point :  "  He  came  to  himself." 
Let  your  plummet  down  into  that  sentence, 
and  you  will  find  it  very  deep.  It  opens  into 
the  great  truth  that  rebellion  against  God  is  a 
kind  of  madness.  Man  is  his  true  self  only 
when  he  is  a  loyal  son  in  God's  household :  a 
madman  else — in  a  delirious  dream.  What  a 
stroke  of  art  in  representing  the  beginning  of 
repentance  as  the  return  of  a  sound  conscious- 
ness. And  a  chapter  of  imaginary,  doleful 
reflections  and  contrasts  could  not  exhibit  the 
prodigal's  awakened  thought  so  graphically  as 
this  one  sharp  contrast  in  which  he  voices  it. 
"  My  father's  house — the  very  servants  there 
have  bread  enough  and  to  spare,  and  I,  his 
own  son,  am  perishing  with  hunger ! " 

Now  reflection  merges  into  resolution.  "  I 
will  arise !  I  will  go  home  !  I  will  confess 
my  sin  !  "  No  description  now  of  the  sceneiy 
along  the  road,  nor  of  the  various  adventures 
encountered  on  the  journey  ;  tricks  of  the 
story-teller  to  sharpen  the  reader's  appetite 
for  the  climax  by  keeping  him  in  suspense. 
The  narrator  is  full  of  the  thought  of  home, 
just  as  the  reader  is.     At  this  point  of   the 


CQ  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

story  you  feel  just  as  you  do  when  you  are 
returning  to  your  native  town  and  family 
homestead  after  years  of  absence.  You  do 
not  care  a  penny  for  all  the  scenery  in  the 
world.  The  most  exciting  incident  on  the 
way  is  insipid.  You  only  chafe  at  the  delay 
it  creates.  You  want  to  hurry  those  horses ; 
to  pull  out  the  throttle-valve  of  that  engine, 
and  drive  through  to  home.  Neither  does 
the  narrator  stop  while  he  affectingly  pictures 
the  old  father  looking  out  of  the  window  or 
scanning  the  road,  and  tell  of  the  tears  with 
which  he  has  moistened  his  pillow  in  the  lone- 
ly nights  when  the  rain  was  on  the  roof.  The 
story  needs  no  such  details  to  make  it  pa- 
thetic. Its  pathos  lies  deeper.  Home,  home 
is  the  theme.  It  is  all  in  a  sentence.  "  He 
arose  and  went  to  his  father."  Pathos!  In 
following  such  a  story  as  this,  one  can  weep  as 
he  runs.  I  wonder  if  any  one  can  go  on  from 
this  point  without  the  floods  pressing  to  his 
eyes.  Oh,  how  the  blessed  details  crowd  upon 
each  other.  Swiftly  as  the  story  moved  at  the 
beginning,  its  pace  quickens  as  it  gathers 
up  for  the  close.  The  father  sees,  —  sees 
him  a  great  way  off.  All  the  past  look- 
ing and  yearning  are  in  that.  Love  and 
longing  have  made  him  far-sighted.  "  He 
ran."     Love  never   lets  its  object  come  the 


CHRIST  AS  A   TEACHER.  kj 

whole  way.  Divine  love  urges  the  sinner  to 
come,  but  it  goes  to  meet  him.  Every  feel- 
ing is  now  swallowed  up  in  compassion.  The 
embrace  is  first  from  the  father's  side.  He 
falls  on  his  son's  neck.  The  confession  is 
breathed,  but  without  the  request  to  be  made 
a  hired  servant.  The  boy  never  could  have 
said  that  with  those  arms  round  his  neck. 

And  now  we  reach  the  climax.  Festivity. 
The  joyful  bustle  of  the  awakened  house  has 
gotten  into  the  story.  How  the  orders  pour 
from  the  happy  father.  "  My  son  is  at  home 
with  a  son's  heart  in  him.  Bring  out  the  best 
robe  for  him.  My  son  is  no  dishonored  beg- 
gar, but  an  honored  guest.  Put  a  ring  on  his 
finger.  It  is  not  fitting  that  my  son  should 
be  hungry.  Bring  forth  the  fatted  calf  and 
kill  it.  The  shadow  is  lifted  from  this  home. 
Let  us  eat  and  drink  and  be  merry, — servants 
and  all."  And  then  comes  the  whole  Gospel 
in  a  brief  paragraph.  Man  is  a  son  of  God : 
he  is  lost  and  dies  by  absence  from  God :  he 
is  found  and  lives  again  by  penitent  return  to 
God.  "  This  my  son  was  dead  and  is  alive 
again,  he  was  lost  and  is  found." 

I  may  take  occasion  here  to  remark  that 
while  enlargement  upon  the  hints  furnished 
by  Scripture  narratives  is  legitimate  and  often 
profitable,  it  is  not  that  easy  matter  which  it 


e  2  CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER. 

often  seems  to  a  lively  and  teeming  fancy ; 
and  to  do  it  effectively  is  something  which  re- 
quires nice  judgment  and  a  very  clear  insight 
into  the  whole  drift  and  spirit  of  the  story.  A 
danger  lies  close  beside  it,  of  covering  up  the 
best  points  of  the  narrative  with  excessive  or 
incongruous  description,  and  of  making  it 
ridiculous  by  importing  into  it  things  quite 
alien  to  its  meaning  and  original  setting.  I 
once  heard  a  preacher  describing  the  conver- 
sion of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  He  brought  him  to 
Damascus,  and  then  proceeded  on  this  wise : 
"  When  Saul  arrived  at  Damascus,  he  went  at 
once  to  his  hotel  in  Straight  Street,  and  went 
directly  to  his  room.  To  most  people,  the 
most  pleasing  sound  in  the  world  is  the  sound 
of  the  dinner-bell ;  but  when  the  dinner-bell 
rang,  Saul  didnt  go  down  I  "  And  I  found 
the  following  morsel  in  a  volume  of  sermons 
for  children,  where  the  preacher  was  telling 
the  story  of  Zacharias,  the  father  of  John  the 
Baptist.  He  described  Zacharias'  recovery  of 
speech  as  follows.  I  quote  literally  :  "  And 
while  they  were  all  wondering  what  this 
meant,  old  Zacharias  gave  a  rattling  kind  of 
gurgle  in  his  throat,  or  coughed  awaj>  something 
that  had  been  like  a  heavy  cold  on  him,  and  he 
who  had  not  spoken  a  word  for  nine  months, 
now  spoke  out  loudly  like  the  rest  of  the  peo- 


CHRIS T  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  C  5 

pie  and  praised  God."  I  think  I  shall  not  be 
deemed  uncharitable  in  expressing  the  wish 
that  Zacharias'  enforced  silence  might  be  im- 
posed, for  a  season  at  least,  upon  those  who 
thus  caricature  the  simple  and  dignified  narra- 
tives of  the  Gospel,  and  feed  the  lambs  of  the 
flock  with  such  miserable,  I  had  almost  said 
blasphemous  trash. 

Let  _me  briefly  note  some  other  peculiari- 
ties of  our  Lord's  narrative  style,  at  some  of 
wlTiclT  I  have  already  hinted  in  the  story  of 
the  Prodigal. 

There  is  the  dramatic  element.  Every 
good  story  contains  more  or  less  of  this.  There 
is  a  difference  between  annals  and  stories. 
Merely  to  string  a  number  of  incidents  to- 
gether is  not  to  tell  a  story.  Much  of  the 
effect  of  a  story  depends  on  the  grouping  of 
the  incidents;  the  setting  of  the  telling  points 
in  strong  light  and  duly  subordinating  minor 
details.  The  art  of  story-telling  consists  in  re- 
producing its  scenes  to  the  eye  through  the 
ear.  The  oriental  story-teller  and  the  racon- 
teur of  Southern  Europe  are  actors.  If  you 
want  a  good  modern  illustration  of  how  a 
story  can  be  dramatized  in  narrative,  you  will 
find  one  in  Charles  Reade's  charming  little 
tale  of  "  Christie  Johnstone,"  where  Christie 
tells  to  a  holiday  party  of  fishermen  and  fish- 


J- A  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

wives  the  story  of  the  ".  Merchant  of  Venice," 
as  dramatized  by  Shakespeare.  It  is_  this 
characteristic  of  the  Gospel  stoxiesiiJiich  makes 
"them  such  capital  subjects  for  pictures  ;  a  fact 
which  the  old  artists  who  painted  Scripture 
scenes  far  more  than  their  modern  successors, 
were  not  slow  to  appreciate.  I  should  like  to 
say  some  things,  if  time  permitted,  about  the 
Bible  stories  in  art ;  and  to  show  you  how 
they  adapt  themselves  to  the  various  local  pe- 
culiarities in  which  artists  of  different  coun- 
tries and  times  set  them,  without  sacrificing 
the  point  of  their  lessons.  I  will  give  you 
just  one  instance.  In  the  gallery  of  the 
Louvre  at  Paris,  there  is  a  picture  of  the  Prod- 
igal Son  by  the  younger  Teniers,  in  which  all 
the  details  are  distinctively  Dutch.  The 
young  man,  in  the  costume  of  a  Dutch  gal- 
lant, sits  with  two  female  companions  at  a  ta- 
ble in  front  of  an  inn,  on  the  shutter  of  which 
a  tavern-score  is  chalked,  and  holds  out  his 
glass  to  be  filled  by  an  attendant.  Over  in 
the  right-hand  corner  appears  a  pigsty,  where 
a  stable-boy  is  feeding  the  swine,  but  with  his 
head  turned  toward  the  table  as  if  in  envy  of 
the  gay  revellers  there.  The  picture,  with  all 
its  unbiblical  setting,  yet  tells  the  Bible  story 
effectively.  Sensuality  is  the  same  under  any 
garb.     The  difference  between  the  youth  at 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  C  c 

the  table  and  the  youth  at  the  sty  is  only  su- 
perficial. Degradation  is  only  the  lower  and 
grosser  side  of  sin,  a  truth  in  Holland  as  in 
Palestine.  The  possible  swineherd  is  already 
in  the  gay  prodigal. 

You  note  the  same  dramatic  element  in  the 
parable  of  the  ten  virgins.  How  vivid  the 
long  waiting;  the  heads  bowed  in  slumber; 
the  thrill  of  the  midnight  cry,  "  Behold  the 
bridegroom !"  the  hurried  filling  and  trimming 
of  the  lamps ;  the  woful  plaint,  "  Our  lamps 
are  going  out  !  "  the  rush  to  the  oil-vender ; 
the  closed  door,  and  the  stern  finality  of  the 
terrible  words  from  within,  "  I  know  you 
not !  "  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  fearfully  dra- 
matic narratives  of  the  New  Testament  is  not 
always  recognized  as  such,  because  of  its  brev- 
ity. I  mean  that  of  the  rich  man  who  would 
pull  down  his  barns  and  build  greater.  With 
the  most  consummate  art  we  are  carried  along 
in  the  current  of  the  rich  man's  thought,  for- 
getting with  him  everything  but  the  heaps  of 
treasure,  the  plans  for  the  new  barns,  and  the 
dreams  of  future  luxury ;  when,  like  thunder 
from  a  clear  sky,  breaks  "  Thou  fool !  This 
night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee  !  " 
And  as  at  the  sudden  shifting  of  a  scene,  a 
whole  unsuspected  economy  of  life  is  disclosed, 
and  with  the  rich  fool,  unconscious  till  this  in- 


eg  CHRIST  AS  A    TEACHER. 

stant  of  anything  but  money  and  barns,  we 
look  into  a  realm  where  only  the  soul  counts, 
and  riches  count  for  nothing. 

Included  in  this  dramaticelement  is_the  fre- 
quent  use  of  dialogue.  ^'TIVe~cliafa£ters  speak 
_for  themselves.  This  is  characteristic  of  the 
second  part  of  the  parable~^;5f::44i«-^^ 
where  the  respectable  son  is  introduced.  No 
disquisition  on  the  unfilial,  servile  spirit  which 
sometimes  accompanies  "  good  and  regular 
standing,"  could  be  half  so  telling  as  the 
glimpse  we  get  of  it  at  the  house  door,  where 
it  comes  out  that  the  older  son's  highest  €Ofl- 
ception  of  filial  service  is  something  to  be 
paid  for  with  a  feast.  You  will  readily  recall 
similar  instances,  such  as  the  story  of  the 
wedding-feast,  with  the  excuses  of  the  several 
people  invited,  and  the  closing  incident  of  the 
guest  without  the  wedding-garment ;  also  the 
Talents,  the  Unrighteous  Steward,  and  the 
Laborers  in  the  Vineyard.  In  these  the  char- 
icters  interchange  the  appropriate  language 
of  the  field,  the  market,  or  the  guest-chamber. 
Just  a  word  on  the  element  of  verisiviilitude 
already  touched  upon  in  discussing  Christ's 
illustrations.  It  might  not  be  safe  to  assert  too 
positively  that  all  these  stories  told  by  our 
Lord  are  imagined.  More  than  one  of  them 
may  be  a  narrative  of  something  which  had 


CHRIST  AS  A    TEA  CHER.  -  - 

actually  fallen  under  the  Master's  observation. 
But^  _however  that  may  be,  ever>'.  incident, 
every  word,  every  detail  of  these  stories  might 


have_begn_tnj£_„Many  of  them,  most  indeed, 
have  a  local  coloring  which  always  arrests 
attention.  It  added  to  the  effect  of  the  par- 
able of  the  Good  Samaritan,  for  instance, 
that  the  scene  was  laid  on  the  Jericho  road, 
which,  as  everybody  knew,  was  infested  with 
thieves  ;  while  the  passing  of  the  priest  and 
Levite  would  be  emphasized  by  the  equally 
familiar  fact  that  Jericho  was  an  important 
station  of  priests.  Christ  never  employed  an 
impossible  or  an  improbable  incident,  and 
"never  took  it  out  of  its  appropriate  setting. 
"And" therefore,  in  our  teaching,  it  is  always 
the  safer  course  to  reproduce  these  incidents 
as  nearly  as  possible  with  their  original  cir- 
cumstances ;  to  see,  and  to  try  and  make  the 
learner  see  with  Eastern  eyes.  It  is  hazard- 
ous to  modernize  a  Bible  story.  The  lesson 
may  indeed  assert  itself  through  its  incongru- 
ous setting,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  the 
old  painters ;  but  something  is  likely  to  get 
into  it  which  mars  its  beauty  and  blurs  its 
perfect  impression.  After  reading  John's  ac- 
count of  the  marriage  at  Cana,  one  does  not 
feel  that  our  Lord  is  at  home  in  Veronese's 
magnificent  canvas,  among  the  gorgeous  robes 


58 


CHRIST-AS  A    TEACHER. 


of  Venetian    courtiers   and   the   costly  para 

r2hernalia  of  an  Italian  banquet. 
_^Wxind-rous  teacher!  How  lucid  Hi 
ing,  as  with  the  brightness  which  cometh  out 
of  the  North,  yet  what  depths  in  the  heart  of 
the  light !  How  terribly  plain,  yet  how  kindly. 
How  positive  and  dogmatic,  yet  how  sweetly 
reasonable.  How  profound  and  yet  how  sim- 
ple. How  vivid  and  graphic,  yet  how  dig- 
nified. How  outspoken,  yet  how  pure.  How 
quick  and  subtle  His  perception  of  error  or 
sophistry,  yet  how  frank  and  generous  His 
recognition  of  the  smallest  grain  of  truth. 
How  patient  He  is  with  ignorance ;  how  gen- 
tle with  slowness  of  faith.  How  informal  and 
familiar  His  lessons,  yet  with  what  logical  com- 
pactness and  system  underneath  them.  How 
strongly  drawn  the  lines  of  truth,  yet  what  a 
freshness  and  freedom  pervades  it.  What 
a  divinity  breathes  through  all  His  words. 
Surely,  as  we  study,  we  shall  find  admiration 
merging  into  worship,  and  our  lips  and  hearts 
giving  back  His  own  words — t  Yea,  Master, 
Thou  art  indeed  both  Teacher  and  Lord  ;  the 
wisest,  the  best,  the  dearest  of  Teachers,  be- 
cause Lord  over  all,  and  blessed  forever." 


Date  Due 


